Acidic and alkaline cleaning compositions for hard surfaces have been used for many years to remove stubborn soils from a variety of surfaces found in household and institutional locations. A variety of cleaning compositions have been developed to deal with the tenacious organic and organic/inorganic matrix soils common in a variety of surfaces. One particularly useful form of cleaner is an aqueous alkaline cleaner commonly delivered from a pressurized aerosol or pump spray device. These types of cleaners have great utility for a variety of surfaces because the material can be delivered by spray to vertical, overhead or inclined surfaces or to surfaces having a complex curved or convoluted surface while achieving substantially complete coverage of the surface with the spray-on liquid cleaner. Acid spray-on cleaners are also known for removing basic inorganic soils and are becoming more common.
Spray devices create a spray pattern of the composition that contacts the target hard surface. The majority of the composition comes to reside on the target surface, while a small portion of the sprayable composition may become an airborne aerosol or mist consisting of small particles (e.g. an airborne mist or finely divided aerosol) of the cleaning composition that can remain suspended or dispersed in the atmosphere surrounding the dispersal site for a period of time, such as between about 5 seconds to about 10 minutes. Such airborne mist or finely divided aerosol generated during the spraying process can present a substantial problem
Such aqueous compositions having a strong base cleaning component in the form of a finely divided aerosol or mist can cause respiratory distress in a user. To alleviate the respiratory distress, some sprayable aqueous compositions have been formulated with reduced quantities of the alkaline cleaning components. Strong caustic has been replaced by reduced alkalinity bases such as bicarbonate or by solvent materials. However, the reduction in concentration or substitution of these materials can often reduce the cleaning activity and effectiveness of the material when used. This necessitates the use of organic surfactants or glycol, alkyl ether or dimethyl sulfoxide solvent materials to enhance the detergent properties of the reduced alkaline materials. Despite improvements seen in sprayable aqueous compositions there remains a need for improved compositions having reduced misting and therefore reduced inhalation, while providing efficacious cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting.
Development and improvements to polymers for various uses include those disclosed in EP 202,780 disclosing particulate cross-linked copolymers of acrylamide with at least 5 mole percent dialkylaminoalkyl acrylate; U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,725 disclosing the addition of a cross-linking agent both at the beginning, and during the polymerization process under conditions such that its availability for reaction is substantially constant throughout the process; EP 374,458 disclosing water-soluble branched high molecular weight cationic polymers; EP 363,024 disclosing chain transfer agent at the conclusion of polymerization of a DADMAC/acrylamide copolymer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,775 disclosing use of substantially linear cationic polymers such as acrylamide/dimethylaminoethyl acrylate methyl chloride quaternary salt copolymers; U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,381 disclosing branched cationic polyacrylamide powder such as an acrylamide/dimethylaminoethyl acrylate quaternary salt copolymer; and WO2002002662 disclosing water-soluble cationic, anionic, and nonionic polymers, synthesized using water-in-oil emulsion, dispersion, or gel polymerization and having a fast rate of solubilization, higher reduced specific viscosities.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the claimed invention to develop compositions having reduced misting, anti-mist and/or particle size control for chlorine-free hard surface cleaners.
A further object of the invention is a reduced misting product to reduce and/or eliminate exposure to users of the cleaning composition to mist or other small particles generated by the spraying of the cleaning composition.
A further object of the invention is a reduced misting product suitable for formulation using inverse emulsion polymers in neutral, acidic and/or alkaline formulations, including oxidizing formulations.
A still further object of the invention is to provide methods of cleaning using the inverse emulsion polymer compositions to treat hard surfaces while reducing the amount of mist or other small particles generated by the spraying of the composition.
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.